Congress Must Act to Make Telehealth Waivers Permanent and Prevent Medicare Cuts

AMGA Details Priorities in Letter to Congress

Alexandria, VA – AMGA today recommended Congress permanently extend the current COVID-19 telehealth waivers and move to prevent any future cuts to the Medicare program. The recommendations were submitted to Congress in a letter outlining the association’s policy priorities, which also include removing the coinsurance payment requirement for chronic care management, promoting health equity, preserving the Medicare Advantage program, and ensuring provider access to administrative claims data.

“Our federal government’s swift and sustained legislative and regulatory response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been laudable,” said Jerry Penso, M.D., M.B.A., AMGA president and CEO. “However, as the severity of the pandemic continues to shift, we urge Congress to consider the long-term future of healthcare in the United States and ensure providers have access to the resources they need to care for patients during the remainder of our current public health crisis and beyond.”

In the letter, AMGA recommends Congress address Medicare sequestration cuts before the July 1 deadline to ensure multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care have the financial resources they need to deliver care at normal capacity.

Regarding telehealth, AMGA urges Congress to recognize how the pandemic has altered care delivery by eliminating geographic and originating sites restrictions placed on Medicare telehealth services. Congress should also uphold payment parity for telehealth services, including audio-only services and in-office visits, beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency. Finally, AMGA recommends that audio-only visits satisfy the face-to-face requirement for collecting diagnoses for risk-adjustment and care coordination purposes.

“Telehealth continues to play a vital role for providers in ensuring that their patients are able to receive care regardless of their location and delivery modality,” Penso said. “Congress should now recognize the important role that telehealth has in a modern healthcare system by permanently authorizing all of these policies.”

To improve care for the chronically ill, AMGA calls on Congress to waive the current Chronic Care Management (CCM) code’s 20% coinsurance requirement for Medicare beneficiaries. To promote health equity, AMGA recommends Congress approve legislation that would make grants available to support the development of evidence-based care coordination and social services in underprivileged communities.

AMGA also urges Congress to extend the 5% Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) incentive payments under the Medicare Access to CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 for at least six additional years, grant providers access to commercial payers’ administrative claims data, and to carefully consider any Medicare Advantage policy changes to ensure they do not negatively impact care delivery.

The full letter is available here.

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About AMGA
 AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of health care in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate, and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of our members’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high-quality, high-value care. Over 177,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to more than one in three Americans.

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Media Contact:

Sharon Grace
Chief Communications Officer
703.838.0033 ext. 393
sgrace@amga.org
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